FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
29 March 2020 This weekend we get the great story of Jesus and Lazarus. It is a long story densely packed with many happenings and many meanings. It may be difficult to get at exactly what the whole point is. The best friend of Jesus dies Jesus is away hiding. He arrives late, too late even for the burial, and everyone around him is ready to point an accusing finger. First it is Martha and Mary, who can’t understand all this, their grief gets in the way. They point their fingers at Jesus: “Lord if you had been here. Lord you should have stopped this, why didn’t you?” Then the...
Read MoreFOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
22 March 2020 I have been very fortunate in my life. Other than the usual childhood ailments I’ve come this far pretty well intact. I still have my tonsils, most of my teeth are still my own, and I’ve kept at least some of my hair, very little but at least some. I grew up in a basic middle class home, went to good schools, have done a fair amount of travelling, and am turning out pretty middle-class: neither rich nor poor. I say all this because by and large I’ve known very little personally, of what can be called “structural evil”–that is evil where no...
Read MoreTHIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
15 March 2020 It’s strange, this interchange between the Samaritan woman and Jesus. In the first place, it should never have happened. Samaritans and Jews don’t have polite conversation. In the second place, Rabbi’s and Samaritan women don’t have theological debates. This woman should have known her place, should have backed off. She doesn’t though. And, in one of the odder moves, taunts Jesus. Who does he think he is to know so much–greater than Jacob? If you’ve a literate ear, it sounds like some other taunting directed at Jesus. Who does he think he is? Why doesn’t he save himself? –by...
Read MoreSEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
23 February 2020 One of the mandatory things I used to do when I went back to Hatley was to visit the cemetery. My parent’s home was across the street from the Catholic grade school which is right next to the rectory which is right next to the church which is right next to the cemetery. The summer before I left for college I worked in that cemetery: cutting the lawn, setting tombstones right, clipping by hand around each gravestone–we didn’t have a weed-whacker. Let me tell you, it does strange things to you when you crawl around the cemetery on you hands and...
Read MoreTHIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
26 January 2020 A story: A four year old boy had been naughty all day. His mother sent him to bed early as punishment. He marched off without a protest, but in a few minutes came back carrying his favorite stuffed animal, his piggy bank and some clothes. “What are you doing?” asked his father. “I’m running away from home,” the little boy said. “Oh,” said his father, “What will you do when you get hungry?” The little boy thought a bit, and then with the innocence of the young said: “I’ll come home to eat.” “Oh,” said his father, “What will you do when you run out of money?” The little boy...
Read MoreSECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
19 January 2020 A story. A man dies. This is a man who all his life waited for the day when he could retire. Every week day morning throughout his life he would rise at 5 am, think of all the responsibilities he had, he longed to be free, free from responsibility, free from being “counted on.” And so, this man dies. He goes to a wonderful place.. He wishes for entertainment– it happens, angels who sing, angels who tumble and walk the high wire, angels who read the lines from soap operas. He wishes for food, – food appears, Thanksgiving every day. It is incredible. Finally, a man in a white...
Read MoreFEAST OF CHRIST THE KING
24 November 2019 The people stood there watching.” Those are the words I find most haunting from today’s gospel. “The people stood there watching.” I have done that a lot in my life I remember walking down a street in Minneapolis as a bag lady came in my direction. The smell of booze was heavy all around her. She tripped and fell and I watched as she struggled to get up. I can remember as a child, one of my classmates who wasn’t the brightest bulb on the tree, who was also awkward in body and couldn’t run or catch, I remember as some of my classmates taunted him one day on the...
Read MoreTHIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
17 November 2019 Patricia Schultz is a best selling author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. In the book she chronicled the incredible sights to see and places to be before we die–just in case we didn’t have our own list of those places. In explaining why she wrote the book, Schultz cited Mark Twain who said, “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” As we approach the end of the Church year–next weekend is the last in this Lucan cycle, the author presents a Jesus who speaks about ultimate concerns. Jesus wants us...
Read More